The Brazilian, sorry, the Sao Paulo Grand Prix had it all. Action, big championship implications, crashes, bad weather. It. Had. It. All. It made a great case for why traditional, purpose-built tracks are what makes F1 tick. The newly laid tarmac ate up the tyres, so strategy was back. The increment weather caused plenty of drama in the Sprint but the race lived up to it with plenty of overtaking, not just DRS trains, great drives and at the end, Lando Norris took control.
Lando Norris led from pole and ran a pretty uneventful race while chaos ensued behind him. Antonelli put in his best performance of the season, and Verstappen made the final step of the podium from the pit lane. The Ferraris had a nightmare once again while Bearman laid his cards on the table as their successor to Hamilton or Leclerc, depending on how the next year or so go.
It wasn’t all guns and roses though. Oscar Piastri’s bad run of form continued at the worst time of the season. He crashed in the Sprint and only came 5th in the race, taking the championship out of his control. He will have to turn things around fast to stop his teammate taking all the glory.
I feel sorry for Gabriel Bortoleto; he had the worst-case scenario for a first home race. He had an almighty crash in the Sprint and then crashed again on the first lap of the race. The home crowd on the main straight never got to see him drive past in full force.
I could write about this race for a long time, giving away all the details on the drivers before I get to the ratings, so lets dive into them now. Lets do it.
Lando Norris – 9.1
Lando has had a few weekends recently where you could say it’s his best overall career performance. Brazil is in that category, but I would say Mexico was better. Make no mistake, though, Lando dominated this weekend. Two pole positions, two wins, while seemingly not getting out of 4th gear. He didn’t disappear into the distance but did enough to take a commanding lead in the Championship. He was looking after his tyres while Max closed in late but showed he had pace in hand when he needed it. Its now his championship to win with 3 races and a sprint left.
Kimi Antonelli – 9.1
This was Antonelli’s best performance of his young career. He stuck it on the front row in both races, and despite the small collision at the restart where he could have left Piastri more space, he drove brilliantly. He did what he needed to do and held off a charging Max Verstappen at the end to take his first 2nd place. Only 1st left on the podium for Kimi.
Max Verstappen – 9.2
It shows the reputation Verstappen has that I thought he could have legitimately snatched this race if Red Bull hadn’t pitted him a second time. He got a bit lucky with the puncture that got him off the hards and onto the mediums, but Verstappen had to make quick progress, which he did. His ability to overtake, combined with his large shadow in the driver’s mirrors makes him almost unstoppable. It’s crazy to think this is only his 3rd-best performance in Brazil alone (see 2016 and 2024).
George Russell – 7.9
This was the first time that Russell was outperformed by his teammate this season. George was about a 1/4 second off Antonelli all weekend but as is usual, he went forward in the race from 6th on the grid. He tried defending from Verstappen for the podium but the Dutchman’s tyre advantage was too much for him.
Oscar Piastri – 7.2
Piastri is starting to fall apart. His composed, ice cold persona that he built over the first 15 races is cracking since Baku. He is making uncharacteristic mistakes and isn’t showing the pace to make up for them. He was unlucky in the Sprint on a slippery curb at Turn 2 and was squeezed at Turn 1 in the race, and picked up a 10 second penalty for his troubles. It was borderline but Piastri didn’t do enough under braking to really claim the space. He battled back to 5th but it’s not enough to stop his teammate’s charge.
Ollie Bearman – 8.7
Ollie has been outperforming his teammate for most of the season but the last two races he has got the big results to really highlight this. He started 8th and made up places with some lovely overtakes on Hadjar and Hulkenberg to solidify his place amongst the big boys. He finished 23 seconds ahead of Lawson in 7th, despite overtaking him with 14 laps to go. Very solid.
Liam Lawson – 8.3
Liam made the one-stop work to perfection. He had a train of 7 cars behind him as he crossed the line in 7th. He has been the better Racing Bull for he second half of the season which is testament to his mental fortitude after a gut-wrenching start.
Isack Hadjar – 8.1
Hadjar will be disappointed with 8th after starting on the 2nd row, and annoyed his teammate beat him on the ‘slower strategy’ but a solid performance for the young Frenchman as the Racing Bulls showed good pace in Brazil. His qualifying performances continue to stand out as well.
Nico Hulkenberg – 8.1
A return to the points for Hulk after a few tricky races, especially in Mexico where his car let him down big time. While his teammate had a nightmare, he salvaged some points and keeps Sauber in the fight for 6th in the constructors.
Pierre Gasly – 8.4
Something just switched in his Alpine in Brazil. Gasly was in the hunt from the get go. He qualified in the top 10 for the first time in forever and followed it up with a great performance to claim the final point. It won’t affect his or Alpine’s championship standings but a rare glimmer of hope for this season. The team just need to figure out why the car worked this weekend compared to the other 20 so far.
Alex Albon – 7.2
Albon finished in the DRS train, tantalisingly close to his first points since Italy! He qualified in 12th and wasn’t able to make up enough places into the points. It’s a stark contrast to the beginning of the season where Albon was scoring for fun. Luckily he and Williams have good buffers in both championships.
Esteban Ocon – 7.2
This feels like the best Ocon can do at the moment, his qualifying has been letting him down recently, making his weekends harder but, once again, he was thoroughly outperformed by his teammate. In the race proper at least, but that’s where the real points are.
Carlos Sainz – 6.9
A tricky weekend all round for Williams. Carlos barely got out of Q1 before and didn’t make much progress in the race. He was at the back of the aforementioned DRS train and finished 13th.
Fernando Alonso – 6.5
The final man in the a-aforementioned DRS train. He would have been dreaming of points starting in 11th but dropped back to finish 14th.
Franco Colapinto – 6.9
While his teammate’s car came alive in Brazil, Colapinto’s gave him more of the same unfortunately for the Argentinian. His Q1 exit streak continued but he did beat both Red Bulls so that’s something. He was holding onto the DRS train for 7th at the end, whereas he has had the habit of dropping off the back of the pack of late.
Lance Stroll – 6.5
Lance was unlucky as he dropped to the back on Lap 1 after a love tap from Yuki spun him round. From there, with potential damage he wasn’t able to make the places back up.
Yuki Tsunoda – 3.5
Another race where Yuki finishes last on the round. That’s the 3rd time this year! He was knocked out in Q1, knocked into Stroll, damaged his front wing, got a penalty, pitted 3 times and finished 11 seconds off the back. Ouch.
Lewis Hamilton – 3.5
A nightmare race, and weekend for Lewis. His qualifying woes continued, being knocked out in Q2. He got pushed out wide at the start to lose places and caught his wing on the back of Gasly’s Alpine. It removed itself from his Ferrari and got stuck underneath his car. This ripped up the important venturi tunnels on the floor to render his car undrivable. He waggled around the track until Lap 37 when the team retired the car. Super Ouch.
Charles Leclerc – 5.0
Charles was so unlucky to be caught up in the safety car restart incident. He left plenty of space on the outside line but got clobbered by a spinning Antonelli, which ripped off his tyre and drop his suspension on Lap 5. He did brilliantly to qualify 3rd but was in the right place at the wrong time. Double DNF for Ferrari.
Gabriel Bortoleto – 1.0
Now, you thought Tsunoda and the two Ferrari’s had bad weekends! At his first home race as an F1 driver, the wheels, figuratively and literally, came off.
He He had a proper crash in the Sprint, when it appeared he didn’t turn his DRS off before twitching to the left to make an overtake. He lost the rear end violently, hit the inside wall at Turn 1 before quickly finding the outside wall about 100 meters down the road to destroy all corners of his car. Thankfully, he was completely fine but his race wouldn’t improve his mood.
He was battling with Stroll into Turn 10, Bico de Pato, attempting something around the outside but Stroll drifted wide, Gabriel caught a wheel on the grass which spun him into the barriers. This ended his race on Lap 1. Uber Super Ouch.
The Perfect Formula 